Press Release: 1989-09-21: RETAILING : Every Dog Has His Day, and Star of Surfer Board Game Is No Exception

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: www.latimes.com (archived)

COMPILED BY MARY ANN GALANTE, TIMES STAFF WRITER

SEP. 21, 1989, 12 AM

He’s no purple, boogie-ing raisin but Green Dog is about to make his own leap for fame.

The blond, mop-topped, surfer star of Surf Trip, a surfer-oriented board game, already is on towels and T-shirts. And now Applause Inc., the Southland firm that owns and markets the California Raisins, is about to slap Green Dog on everything from lunch buckets to bed linens to Nintendo cartridges, says Green Dog’s creator, Ric Green, a surfer who used to answer to “Green Dog.”

Green, who grew up in Huntington Beach, began producing and selling the Surf Trip board late last year. The goal of the game--called surfing’s answer to Monopoly--is to be the first surfer to reach the surf shop with three sponsorships and $500 in your trunks. To get there, players travel the board, “riding” monster waves and swimming after their sticks.

The game board is where the marketing connection comes in. To help finance his creation, Green hit up top surf-wear firms to sponsor the game. Nine of them--including four from Orange County--paid more than $100,000 to have their logos inside the game and be one of the sponsors that players collect to win.

For the Orange County firms--Gotcha, Oakley, Instinct, and Victory Wetsuits--the game keeps their name before surfers for the hour or so it takes to play. And with the game being marketed nationally, surfers and would-be surfers from Montana to Maine hear about companies they otherwise might never have run into.

The game retails for about $20, and most of the initial 5,000 games printed have been sold. A shipment of 10,000 is due to hit surf shops and larger retailers in several weeks.

Green said Applause has just purchased the worldwide marketing rights to the game and Green Dog, the game’s main character. Applause plans T-shirts, ceramic mugs and posters with the Green Dog character.